Friday, 30 August 2013

IAA Talk, SPA, Nova, Ast Course, Obs, PM, ISON, Research post, Galway talk, WSW

Hi all,
 
1. IAA OPENING LECTURE, 18 September. Prof Colin Cunningham. "Mega Telescopes: how and why?" The European Southern Observatory will soon blast off the top of a mountain in the Atacama desert, to start construction of a telescope five times bigger than any existing today. This telescope is known as the European Extremely Large Telescope, or E-ELT. The primary mirror will be made from 798 mirrors and will be 39m in diameter, and be controlled to nanometre accuracy. He will describe the engineering challenges of this giant telescope, and give a preview of some of the exciting astronomy discoveries that may result, from the first galaxies to Earthlike planets.
Prof Cunningham is Director, UK E-ELT Programme, and is also involved in projects with ESA and the UK Space Agency. 
   The lecture is free and open to all, including free refreshments. It will be held in the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast, at 7.30 p.m. 
   Thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for help in hosting these lectures.
 
2. SPA MEETING: On behalf of Queen's University Belfast, Armagh Observatory and the Society for Popular Astronomy, we would like to invite all amateur astronomers to an all-day meeting held in honour of the SPA's 60th anniversary.
   The meeting will take place in the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 9:30am until 5:30pm on
Saturday 21st September, and will consist of a series of popular-level talks given by professional
astronomers on their research here in Northern Ireland.
   Additionally, on Sunday 22nd September there will be an organised visit to Armagh Observatory.
Visitors will be given a guided tour of the observatory and astropark, followed by a lunch reception
hosted by the Lord Mayor of Armagh. Please note that this visit is restricted to 45 people due to venue
and transport limitations.
   More details and bookings can be made at the following website: https://sites.google.com/site/spabelfastmeeting
   Attendance at the meeting is free,  but we ask that people register so that we can estimate numbers
for tea/coffee.
  Best Wishes, Prof. Alan Fitzsimmons, Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast
3. Nova Delphini brightened after discovery, but is now slowly fading.
  The Nova was just below 6th magnitude when discovered, but later brightened to at least 5th magnitude, though it now seems to be fading again, to just below N.E. visibility. Lindsay Green estimated the magnitude at 5.8 on 25 August at 21.15 GMT, and Andy McCrea made it about 5.7 on the same night, but it has faded about half a magnitude since then.
   But like its famous nearby predecessor, Nova Del in 1967, it could brighten again. (I have a record of about 18 months observations of Nova Del 1967, and it not only brightened significantly after discovery, then faded a bit, but it then brightened again further a month or so later, becoming even brighter than the first maximum!) So you can never tell....
 
4. ASTRONOMY COURSES RESUME AT STRANMILLIS. Due to popular demand (yes, really!), my astronomy courses at Stranmillis are to be continued this autumn. The new series will build on what the last course covered, but with a more practical content, including on-site observing where possible. It's not necessary for anyone to have attended the first course, as no (or very little) prior knowledge will be assumed.
   The course will run for 10 weeks on Tuesday evenings, starting on 10 September, with a break on 29 October, resuming on 5 November, and finishing on 19 November.
 For details see the Stranmillis Lifelong Learning section website http://www.stran.ac.uk/media/media,396223,en.pdf, go to p 23 for my course.
You can download an enrolment form at http://www.stran.ac.uk/media/media,231524,en.pdf
Please pass this on to anyone you know who might be interested. 
 
5. OBSERVATION WANTED: Sep 15:
IMPORTANT: Dr Pedro Lacerda of the Astrophysics Dept at QUB has asked me if any IAA members (or others), would be able to help with an important observation on Sep 15, at about 20.12 UT (21.12 BST). 
   2005 UQ513 is an Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Object that is predicted to pass in front of a 14th mag star, and so occult it. The magnitude of 2005 UQ513 is about 21, so in effect the star will disappear from any location along the actual occultation track, unless the star is an undetected double star: in that case if only one component is occulted, the other star may remain visible, depending on its brightness.
   The predicted occultation track (which may be slightly in error) passes right over Ireland, and in fact Ireland and Scotland are the best placed countries in the world to observe this event!
   Observing the duration of this event can give accurate information about the size and shape of the object. We need at least 10-second time sampling to get good ingress and egress times. 
    Ideally, if we could get someone in the Northern end of the island and someone else in the S end that would be even better because we'd get more chords sampling the shape of the EKBO.
   The details of the predicted event are at http://fraserkbos.com/?q=2005UQ513-2013-09-15-20-16.
I know that there are some amateurs (and professionals) in Ireland who have suitable equipment to attempt this observation, which could yield some very useful information not obtainable in any other way. Of course, even negative observations are valuable, as they constrain the maximum size of the object.
   The star is at: RA: 00h 30m 11.89s; Dec: + 30deg 37' 23.801". (That's near Delta Andromedae)
   If you would like to have a go, please report directly to Pedro at lacerda.pedro@gmail.com, copy to me, so I know what's happening.

6. Patrick Moore Event, Leicester:
On 28 September 2013 the Royal Astronomical Society, in collaboration with the National Space Centre, will be holding an event to commemorate Sir Patrick Moore and celebrate his life and legacy. The event will be held at the National Space Centre, Leicester, and tickets (which must be booked in advance) will cost £25.
Further details, along with a booking link, may be found at: http://www.spacecentre.co.uk/special-events/patrick-night

7. COMET ISON - LATEST: This comet has now been imaged several times after its reappearance after 'conjunction' with the Sun, and it does indeed seem that it has not brightened as much as expected. It has now just crossed the 'snow/frost line', where water ices sublimate, creating more of a coma and tail and should therefore have increased the brightness. So it doesn't look as promising as we had hoped.
   But as David Levy says "Comets are like cats: they have tails, and they do exactly what they want", i.e. they are not really predictable!  
We will just have to wait a bit longer to see. It will be best seen from Ireland in late November, and in early December if it survives its extremely close passage round the Sun. For the latest info, see
   Even if we don't see it well from here, we'll be able to watch its very close encounter with the Sun via the almost live SOHO images. It should be visible in the LASCO C3 widefield image from about 06.00 on 26 November to late on Nov 29, and it will shoot quickly through the LASCO C2 narrow-field imager in a few hours around perihelion, on Nov 28d 18h 49m.
 
8. Research Position at Dublin Tallaght IT. Project: Full time M.Sc. by research at IT Tallaght: Analysis of the public understanding and value of, and expectation from science. Principle Supervisor: Kevin Nolan, Lecturer in Physics, School of Science, IT Tallaght.
    Description: This project aims to survey and evaluate the public understanding, perception and value of (and expectation from) science in Ireland. Subsequent to development of a comprehensive survey, numerous means will be used to conduct it across all cohorts across society, including best traditional practices as well as using Web portals, social networks and science centres. The successful candidate will also engage a one week outreach internship at Blackrock Castle Observatory (BCO) Science Centre, one of the centres due to run the survey. Results will be published in a peer reviewed journal and presented at conference; providing new insights into science education and outreach as well as into national science priorities.
    The project is fully funded for two academic years, including college fees, a monthly stipend of 833 Euro (net), costs for conference and BCO internship, among other usual costs. The interested candidate should have an honours degree at 2.2 or higher in one of: Science, Engineering, Computing, Scientific Communications, Science Education, Social Science, Scientific Journalism or a related area. Interested candidates should send an email expressing their interest to Kevin Nolan at: Kevin.Nolan@ittdublin.ie

9. Talk By Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell,  NUIG Astronomy Society,  Tuesday, 24 September, 19:00.
 "A lightweight introduction to gravitational radiation". Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves - sometimes called ripples in space-time. Was he right? What are these ripples? How would we 'see' them? What could produce them? And are they any use anyway? This talk introduces these waves and shows that we are on the threshold of detecting a whole new spectrum of radiation. All welcome.

10. WORLD SPACE WEEK: World Space Week 2013 'Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth' Global Analogue Campaign. From 4-10 October, more than twenty organizations spread across four continents will be exploring Mars - and discovering more about Earth in the process.  A campaign of networked Mars analogue demonstrations is being launched to celebrate World Space Week (WSW) 2013.
   In the most ambitious global outreach and education campaign for WSW to date, teams of researchers, explorers and educators will carry out Mars simulations and tests of rovers, spacesuits and other hardware at locations world-wide.  Activities will include the WSW 2013 Mission to Mars, a 4-day simulation of a human Mars expedition at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.  The 6-person crew will be led by Jon Rask from the Space Biosciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center.  The Mission to Mars and all
satellite events will be co-ordinated from the WSW 2013 Mission Control Center, located at the Headquarters of the Austrian Space Forum in Innsbruck, Austria. 
  'Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth' is organized by the World Space Week Association, in partnership with the Space Generation Advisory Council, the Mars Society, the Austrian Space Forum and Kiwispace Foundation.
   Remco Timmermans, Executive Director of WSW said, "The 'Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth' analogue campaign incorporates science, engineering and education activities related to living and working on Mars. We are reaching out to millions of people around the world with the message: We are on the brink of an exciting new era and you can be part of it!"
   Gernot Grömer, President of the Austrian Space Forum, said, 'We are honoured to take on the task of operating the Mission Control Center, connecting many of the world's premier analogue research teams for planetary exploration. This year's Word Space Week will be an impressive showcase of what the solar
system exploration community has achieved up to now."
11. Alan Bean, Apollo 12: Dinner / Lecture, Pontefract, W. Yorks, 11-12 October. Info & tickets at www.space-lectures.com, T. 01977 795535.
 
12. EVENTS AT BLACKROCK CASTLE OBSERVATORY: www.bco.ie for details of the latest events at Blackrock Castle Observatory, including the Junior Space Camp on September 14.
 
13. PICS FOR NEW IAA WEBSITE PHOTO GALLERY. President and webmaster Paul Evans has produced an excellent new photo gallery on the updated IAA website. See www.irishastro.org.  We would love to have any photos from members showing past IAA events and activities for a "Pics from the Archive" section. Credits will be given to respective owners of course. 
 
14. INTERESTING WEBLINKS: 
 
15. TWITTER: Follow the IAA on Twitter:  @IaaAstro

  
16. NEW LINK! JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION is easy: This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://documents.irishastro.org.uk/iaamembership.doc
    If you are a UK taxpayer, please tick the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you. You can also make a donation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button.  See also www.irishastro.org. 
  
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley
I'm now back on Twitter, after some temporary hiccups: @terrymoseley2
 
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Nova brite, Obs Please!, PM Event, Ast Cours, ISON, MAVEN, TV, MC Photo, BluMoon

Hi all,
 
1. The Nova in Delphinus has brightened since discovery!
 Just below naked-eye visibility when discovered, latest reports put it at around mag 4.5 - 5.0: just visible to the human eye in fair conditions. It may brighten further, though it's more likely that it will be starting to fade a bit.
   A nova is not a 'new' star, as the name would imply: it's just a faint star (almost always a member of a close binary pair) which undergoes an explosion (putting it simply) which increases its brightness by about 8 - 10 magnitudes, or about a factor of 2,000 to 10,000 times brighter. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova
   It's in the NW corner of the small but conspicuous constellation Delphinus, near its borders with Vulpecula and Sagitta. 
    The position is 20h 23m 30.7s; +20d 46m 04.1s. An image by Itagaki can be found at: http://www.k-itagaki.jp/images/pnv-del.jpg. You'll really need a star chart to locate it (I can email one on request), but if you extend the line from Delta through Alpha Del for about 5 times its own length that will take you very close to it. Also see: http://www.space.com/22389-nova-star-explosion-delphinus-discovery.html
See: http://www.space.com/22389-nova-star-explosion-delphinus-discovery.html?cmpid=532476
 
2. ASTRONOMY COURSES RESUME AT STRANMILLIS. Due to popular demand (yes, really!), my astronomy courses at Stranmillis are to be continued this autumn. The new series will build on what the last course covered, but with a more practical content, including on-site observing where possible. It's not necessary for anyone to have attended the first course, as no (or very little) prior knowledge will be assumed.
   The course will run for 10 weeks on Tuesday evenings, starting on 10 September, with a break on 29 October, resuming on 5 November, and finishing on 19 November.
 For details see the Stranmillis Lifelong Learning section website http://www.stran.ac.uk/media/media,396223,en.pdf, go to p 23 for my course.
You can download an enrolment form at http://www.stran.ac.uk/media/media,231524,en.pdf
Please pass this on to anyone you know who might be interested. 
 
3. OBSERVATION WANTED: Sep 15:
IMPORTANT: Dr Pedro Lacerda of the Astrophysics Dept at QUB has asked me if any IAA members (or others), would be able to help with an important observation on Sep 15, at about 20.12 UT (21.12 BST). 
   2005 UQ513 is an Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Object that is predicted to pass in front of a 14th mag star, and so occult it. The magnitude of 2005 UQ513 is about 21, so in effect the star will disappear from any location along the actual occultation track, unless the star is an undetected double star: in that case if only one component is occulted, the other star may remain visible, depending on its brightness.
   The predicted occultation track (which may be slightly in error) passes right over Ireland, and in fact Ireland and Scotland are the best placed countries in the world to observe this event!
   Observing the duration of this event can give accurate information about the size and shape of the object. We need at least 10-second time sampling to get good ingress and egress times. 
    Ideally, if we could get someone in the Northern end of the island and someone else in the S end that would be even better because we'd get more chords sampling the shape of the EKBO.
   The details of the predicted event are at http://fraserkbos.com/?q=2005UQ513-2013-09-15-20-16.
I know that there are some amateurs (and professionals) in Ireland who have suitable equipment to attempt this observation, which could yield some very useful information not obtainable in any other way. Of course, even negative observations are valuable, as they constrain the maximum size of the object.
   The star is at: RA: 00h 30m 11.89s; Dec: + 30deg 37' 23.801". (That's near Delta Andromedae)
   If you would like to have a go, please report directly to Pedro at lacerda.pedro@gmail.com, copy to me, so I know what's happening.

4. Patrick Moore Event, Leicester:
On 28 September 2013 the Royal Astronomical Society, in collaboration with the National Space Centre, will be holding an event to commemorate Sir Patrick Moore and celebrate his life and legacy. The event will be held at the National Space Centre, Leicester, and tickets (which must be booked in advance) will cost £25.
Further details, along with a booking link, may be found at: http://www.spacecentre.co.uk/special-events/patrick-night

5. COMET ISON - LATEST: This much-anticipated comet has now been observed after its re-appearance after 'conjunction' with the Sun. Early indications are that it has not brightened as much as expected in the interval. But as it is just crossing the 'snow/frost line', where water ices should start to sublimate, creating more of a coma and tail and increasing the brightness, it may be just a 'late developer'. We will just have to wait a bit longer to see. It will be best seen from Ireland in late November, and in early December if it survives its extremely close passage round the Sun.
 
 
6. Send your name to Mars on MAVEN: Deadline September 10th 2013. Everybody is welcome to participate! However, to create a log-in you must be 18 or older. If you are under 18 and you would like to enter, please ask your parent or teacher for help. Your name will be written to a DVD and sent into Mars orbit on the MAVEN spacecraft. See: http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/send-your-name/
  
7: TV PROGRAMME: "METEORITE MEN": The current series is on Discovery Science channel on Friday evenings and repeated various other times) and is excellent entertainment. (per Tony Drennan)

8. MARTIN CAMPBELL PHOTO SHORTLISTED: IAA member Martin, whose photos feature regularly in Stardust and the IAA website www.irishastro.org, has one of his photos shortlisted in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition 2013. This is the third year out of four that his images have been shortlisted. Congratulations to Martin, and good luck in the competition.

 
9. EVENTS AT ARMAGH PLANETARIUM: See www.armaghplanet.com: The Emerald Garrison's amazing Heroes & Legends event is coming back to Armagh Planetarium on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 August 2013.
 
10. EVENTS AT BLACKROCK CASTLE OBSERVATORY: www.bco.ie for details of the latest events at Blackrock Castle Observatory, including how to use the remotely controlled TARA telescope.
 
11. PICS FOR NEW IAA WEBSITE PHOTO GALLERY. President and webmaster Paul Evans has produced an excellent new photo gallery on the updated IAA website. See www.irishastro.org.  We would love to have any photos from members showing past IAA events and activities for a "Pics from the Archive" section. Credits will be given to respective owners of course. 

12. NOT Another BLUE MOON! I'm sorry to see that this nonsense is still being peddled by otherwise reputable sites:
http://www.space.com/22439-blue-moon-5-amazing-facts.html 
   What's special about the 3rd Full Moon in a season with four full Moons? Would the 4th FM be not even more special? (Answer - actually, no!) What colour is the 4th FM?? What about the 1st & 2nd FMs?
    And anyway, why should the rest of the world follow some obscure folklore from the Maine Farmer's Almanac? This is just more Blue Moon nonsense!
   If you look at that Full Moon it appears just the same as any other FM. And the photos are just the same as any other FM too. This is prostituting science. The danger is that uninformed members of the public will look at such a 'Blue Moon' and think 'Eh? What's all the fuss about? - all this skywatching is just rubbish'.
 
13. INTERESTING WEBLINKS: 
 
14. TWITTER: Follow the IAA on Twitter:  @IaaAstro

  
15. NEW LINK! JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION is easy: This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://documents.irishastro.org.uk/iaamembership.doc
    If you are a UK taxpayer, please tick the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you. You can also make a donation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button.  See also www.irishastro.org. 
  
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley
I'm now back on Twitter, after some temporary hiccups: @terrymoseley2
 
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Friday, 9 August 2013

Fwd: Perseids, 3 IAA events, Sprite, Kate Russo, Heavy Metal, Guides, ISON, EPSC etc



1. PERSEIDS TO LIGHT UP THE SKY:  12-13 August: Maximum of Perseid meteor shower. The evening of 12-13 August sees the annual maximum of the Perseids meteor shower. Meteors (popularly known as 'shooting stars') are the bright streaks produced by small particles entering the atmosphere at high speed. The Perseids are associated with Comet Swift-Tuttle, which last passed near the Earth in 1992. These meteors appears to originate from a 'radiant' in Perseus, not far from the famous 'Double Cluster'. The shower is active from late July to about 20 August, but activity is low except from about 4 - 16 August, and its quite high from 10th to the 14th. The best time will be on the evening of 12 - 13 August when up to 60 meteors per hour might be seen in a dark sky site. Moonlight will not interfere this year.
    New research by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office shows that one annual meteor shower produces more fireballs than any other: the Perseids. See: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/26jul_perseids/
See: International Meteor Organisation: 2013 calendar, http://www.imo.net/files/data/calendar/cal2013.pdf 
 
2. IAA at the 'RSPB BWSO', 10 August.  The IAA has been asked to participate in an event organised by the RSPB at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra, near Holywood, Co Down. Entitled the 'Big Wild Sleep Out', it will feature overnight camping, with all sorts of night-time activities, including skywatching (if clear), and starshows with the mobile planetarium. It will be just coming up to the maximum of the Perseids meteor shower, so we should see some good activity from a fairly dark site, if it's clear.
  The event is now on the RSPB, NMNI, Cotswold Outdoor and IAA websites. Cotswold Outdoor will be offering prizes of a tent worth £250, 5 family spots and we also have 5 RSPB goody bags with mugs, biscuits, chocolate and RSPB wildlife books all to be won! See www.irishastro.org. 
  

3. IAA at WWT, 11 August. We return to one of our most popular venues, the WWT at Castle Espie, near Comber, Co Down, for another 'Solar Day', from 2 - 5 p.m. We will have a wide variety of telescopes, using special filters and other methods for safely viewing the Sun. Is it now at 'Solar Maximum'? How many sunspots and prominences will be visible? Come along and see for yourself. And if it's cloudy, we will of course have the usual starshows in the Stardome, exhibition of telescopes, binoculars and meteorites, and lots of other attractions. IAA members bringing telescopes get in free; otherwise normal WWT admission charges apply. See www.irishastro.org. 

4. IAA PERSEID PARTY at DELAMONT, 12 August. The IAA 'Triple Whammy' climaxes with a free BBQ and observing event for the maximum of the Perseid Meteors (see Item 1 above) on the evening of 12 August, at Delamont Country Park, between Killyleagh and Downpatrick, Co Down. This is obviously weather dependent, so check the IAA website www.irishastro.org for an update if the forecast is not too good. Bring your own food, drink, plates, eating implements etc, and your own BBQ if you have one: if not, you can probably use some spare space on someone else's. Bring a folding chair, or a waterproof rug, or best of all, a recliner, for comfortable viewing. There will be a waxing crescent Moon very low in the SW, with Saturn just above it, so we may glimpse these with a few portable telescopes, but it will be mainly a night for naked-eye viewing. DCP is well signposted just a few miles S of Killyleagh.

5. SPRITE CAPTURED BY ARMAGH OBSERVATORY! Not a type of fairy, nor a wayward soft drink bottle, but a very rare type of lightning in the mesosphere of the Earth, i.e. the very high upper atmosphere, about 50km up. This is the first time one has been imaged from Ireland. They are 'bolts' of plasma, very brief but not as quick as a lightning flash, and they seem to be sometimes triggered by thunderstorm activity far below them. This one was of the type known as a 'carrot', because of the shape and orange colour. It seems to have occurred over a thunderstorm in the Dublin area. See www.arm.ac.uk for more details. The BBC rang me at 07.20 the next morning to do an interview about it - that's a story in itself, which I won't detail here! (Radio Ulster, at about 07.27, on 1 August)

6. IAA member Dr Kate Russo honoured by her University. Eclipse-chaser Kate, who has written a book and given a talk to the IAA on the subject, has posted as follows "I'm absolutely delighted to share my fabulous news - I have been awarded a James Cook University Outstanding Alumni Award. (insert much fanfare and clapping here). It is such an honour to receive this award, and it was so great to be able to return back to North Queensland to attend the award ceremony. I really like that you can just do what you love to do, and every once in a while you get a little pat on the back for your efforts. It was a great morning - photos to come." Congratulations from us all to Kate!
7. Heavy Metal In Space!  Where Heavy Metal Clouds the Skies: A team of astronomers from Armagh Observatory has discovered two unusual stars with extremely high concentrations of lead in their atmospheres. Naslim Neelamkodan, Simon Jeffery, Natalie Behara and Alan Hibbert are studying the surfaces of helium-rich subdwarfs, which are small hot stars containing much less hydrogen and much more helium than normal. Three years ago they discovered one with a very high surface concentration of zirconium - better known for making false diamonds. Now studying a group of similar stars, they have discovered two which have surfaces containing ten thousand (10,000) times more lead than is present on the surface of the Sun. 
    The two stars are HE 2359-2844, 800 light years away in Sculptor, and HE 1256-2738, 1000 light years away in Hydra. Using observations from the archives of the ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile, they found that the spectra of both stars showed odd features which they eventually realised were due to lead.
   Lead is one of the heaviest elements (atomic number 82). In the Sun the ratio is one lead atom for every ten billion hydrogen atoms. At around 38,000 degrees Celsius, the surfaces of these stars are so hot that three electrons are removed from every lead atom, giving ions with distinctive lines in the star's spectrum, indicating the concentration of lead in the star's atmosphere.
    Using the same technique, HE 2359-2844 was also found to show ten thousand times more yttrium and zirconium than on the Sun. Along with the zirconium star, LS IV-14 116, these stars now form a new group of 'heavy metal subdwarfs'.
    The team believes that these heavy-metal stars are a crucial link between bright red giants (30 or 40 times the size of the Sun), and faint blue subdwarfs (stars one fifth the size, but seven times hotter and 70 times brighter than the Sun). A few red giants lose their thick hydrogen skin and shrink to become hot subdwarfs, or nearly-naked helium stars. As they shrink the pressure of light from the helium stars acts on individual atoms to sort the elements into layers, where they are concentrated by a factor of ten thousand or more.
  Like water vapour in the Earth's atmosphere, a layer of heavy metal at just the right height and concentration can form clouds that become detectable from Earth. The team suggests that the new discoveries are rare examples of these layers coming into view and estimates that the lead layer could be about 100 km thick and weigh some 100 billion tonnes. (edited from an RAS Press Release: TM)
 

8. Guide to Resources for Teaching about Exoplanets. A new annotated guide to written, web, and audio-visual resources for teaching about planets orbiting other stars is now available for high-school and college instructors, their students, informal educators, and astronomy enthusiasts. Materials in the guide to this rapidly-changing branch of astronomy include video and audio files of lectures and interviews with leading scientists in the field, phone and tablet apps, a citizen-science website, popular-level books and articles, and much more. Published by the NASA Astrophysics Education and Outreach Forum and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the guide can be found as a PDF file at: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astronomy-resource-guides/the-search-for-planets-around-other-stars/



9. UNAWE Universe in a Box DIY Guide. Do it Yourself Universe in a Box: For personal, non-commercial use, UNAWE also offers the possibility to build your own Universe in a Box. Please download the DIY guide and source files from http://unawe.org/resources/guides/universeinaboxdiyguide/

 
10. COMET ISON - LATEST: This much-anticipated comet is currently unobservable, being too close to the Sun. But it should become visible by month's end, giving us a much better idea of how it is developing. It will be best seen from Ireland in late November, and in early December if it survives its extremely close passage round the Sun. Meanwhile, the debate and speculation continues:
 
11. The European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 2013 will take place at University College London (UCL) from Sunday 8 September to Friday 13 September 2013.
   EPSC is the major European meeting on planetary science and is expected to attract more than 800 scientists from Europe and around the World. The 2013 programme will include around 75 sessions and workshops. More than 1100 abstracts for oral presentations and posters have been submitted. Topics to be discussed will cover the range of planetary science, including comets on the eve of the Rosetta mission, the exceptional fireball over Chelyabinsk, direct imaging of exoplanets, and how planetary science will be affected by the NewSpace entrepreneurs. For the first time, EPSC will include an industry-themed day on Wednesday 11 September; speakers will include Alvaro Giménez, Director of Science and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency.
    Details of the Congress and a full schedule of EPSC 2013 scientific sessions and events can be found at the official website: http://www.epsc2013.eu/. An overview of the sessions can be found at: http://www.europlanet-eu.org/images/stories/ep/EPSC/epsc2013/epsc_2013_sessions.pdf
    To complement the scientific programme, there will be a festival of planetary-related public events held across London, organised by partner institutions including UCL, the Bloomsbury Theatre, the British Interplanetary Society, the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the Natural History Museum and Royal Astronomical Society.  Events will include a special film showing of 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire', an exhibition and art installations at UCL, an observing night in Regent's Park and a 'Science Show-off' variety event at the Bloomsbury Theatre.  Details can be found at: http://www.europlanet-eu.org/epsc2013. Further information will be circulated a few weeks before the meeting.  
   EPSC has a distinctively interactive style, with a mix of talks, workshops and posters, intended to provide a stimulating environment for discussion.  EPSC 2013 is organised by Europlanet, UCL and Copernicus Meetings.  The event is sponsored by the UK Space Agency, UCL, Astrium and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
 
12: SUMMER SCOPES SALE, from North Down Telescopes:
I have a couple of second hand scopes which might be of interest to members - they are excellent bargains
* Skywatcher 10" 250px Flextube dobsonian Telescope - second hand, all as new, boxed - Excellent value - £480. See;
 
* Celestron CPC 800 - rare opportunity to own this magnificent second-hand instrument - £1,350 - just a few months old - massive savings on new instrument with full Celestron Warranty, boxed etc. See:
 
Both scopes, although second hand are boxed and come as new with one year warranty.
 
 13. PICS FOR NEW IAA WEBSITE PHOTO GALLERY. President and webmaster Paul Evans has produced an excellent new photo gallery on the updated IAA website. See www.irishastro.org.  We would love to have any photos from members showing past IAA events and activities for a "Pics from the Archive" section. Credits will be given to respective owners of course. 

14.
INTERESTING WEBLINKS: 
http://www.space.com/22118-sun-photos-iris-telescope.html?cmpid=529601 (Prof Gerry Doyle and Dr Maria Madjarska at Armagh Observatory are investigators on this mission)
Can anyone identify the starfields? That looks very like the S Cross on the left, but it's not visible from New Hampshire. And anyway the rest of the starfield doesn't relate to the S Cross area. But there's no stargroup like that visible from NH that I know of! Help, please!
 
 
15. TWITTER: Follow the IAA on Twitter:  @IaaAstro

 
16. BBC THINGS TO DO WEBSITE: See the forthcoming IAA events on  
http://www.bbc.co.uk/thingstodo. Look under 'Countryfile'.
 
17. NEW LINK! JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION is easy: This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://documents.irishastro.org.uk/iaamembership.doc
    If you are a UK taxpayer, please tick the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you. You can also make a donation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button.  See also www.irishastro.org. 
  
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley

I'm now back on Twitter, after some temporary hiccups: @terrymoseley2
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